It’s September. The Phillies are in first place and on a tear. Tip your hats to the visiting Nationals coming into town after taking two of three from the Braves. The Phillies, on their current four game win streak, are now three games ahead of said Braves in the NL East.

The Phillies will look to stay hot against a pitcher who has yet to warm up this season. To say Jason Marquis (2-8, 6.60) hasn’t lived up to his role would be an understatement. He was brought in this past off-season to be an inning eater and lead a rotation of young pitchers. He has pitched just over 46 innings in 10 starts this year. And though he is Jewish, he decided to take his spot in the rotation and pitch tonight, the start of Yom Kipper.

The Phillies should be greatful as well. Against the Phils, Marquis’ ERA is over five in 91 innings pitched. This season, Marquis is 0-3 with a 8.78 ERA against the Phillies. Chase Utley has 12 hits in 25 at bats in his career against the righty. Along with Utley, Ryan Howard and Jayson Werth have all homered of Marquis.

Roy Oswalt (12-13, 2.94) will be on the hill for the Phillies one day earlier than his scheduled start for tomorrow. The bump will allow Oswalt to pitch against the Braves next week. This move also allow the Phillies to have their big three or H2O (Halladay, Hamels, Oswalt) go against Atlanta.

Since the beginning of August, Oswalt has been untouchable. He is 6-0 with a 1.56 ERA and holding opposing hitters to a .177 batting average.

UPDATE, 5:50 : The word on Jimmy Rollins is he may be ready for the Atlanta series. He did take grounders in bp and looked to be moving pretty well. There is no timetable yet, but looks like within the next week, according to Charlie Manuel. -Pat Gallen

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180 Comments

Andrew from waldorf

September 17, 2010 at 5:18 pm

Marquis was the opening day starter for the Nats. And their big free agent signing. So hope the phils are ready to go.
This series scares me a little. Phils should get 2 or 3 though.
Hope Roy reaches .500

Chien Ming Wang has yet to recover from his shoulder issues. He’s had the problem for a few years now, and may never regain his abilities. He was a risk; had things worked out, the Nats would be in way better shape.

Charlie likes to win I dont see him putting Jimmy in the 1 hole with 15 games left and just hoping it works out.
Him batting 5th or 6th makes sense
Really to me him hitting 8th and Ruiz 8th is the most common sense thing. But with egos etc etc it wont happen.

Lol I know the Nats are pesky and play the Phillies hard, but if you look at the situation, the reality is the Nats would be lucky to get a game in this series. I expect them to as well…but it’s just that the big picture says this has a high chance of being a sweep.

The mets are a worse franchise. They are in the biggest market in the world with no salary cap and suck every year.

As a franchise the Nats franchise is pretty good. they have certain handicaps. But they are doing it right. the Strsburg thing really hurts them. He needs to change his delivery. And when he does he will lose some on his fastball. but he is going to have to do it to be in the bigs any amount of significant time.

andrew, the mets have a world series in 86. then another appearance in the 90s against the yankees. they were even in division races with us for two season. they nats are in last every year. they are horrible. no reason to even have a team. they bring in good players and let them walk. they are worst in baseball.

The franchise was handicapped by being in Montreal
Anything over 10 years ago has almost no relevance when accesing a franchise.
they are currently a better run franchise than the Mets. Not even close. The mets are probably the worst with who they sign and what they pay and what they produce.

Hey Philly —– I had to go to a back to school nite wednesday nite , oldest kid senior this year youngest a freshman at Conwell Egan HS in Bucks County.——- When they showed how Torre’s Dodgers lost to Phils the last couple years it reminded how the 1976-1979 Lasorda Dodgers with Steve Garvey , Ron Cey and co. beat us every year. Sweet Revenge .

jeff, I would tell you and Andrew to kiss my a**, but I kinda had it coming talking smack on here for the last few weeks. So I’ll just say for the sake of something for both Braves and Phillies fans excitement, we can have somewhat of a rivalry the next few weeks.

Yes, the Mets are even more dreadful than we’ve been lately, so no, i will not brag about them coming back. They’re the freakin Mutts.

1. the site may not be letting people post.
It did it to me alot until they put my nae in something so i am always allowed to. But I cant with another name.
Lost alot of people here with the technical stuff.

OK NICE job pen , Philly-boy here on local tv wheels went into his usual over complimenting of the other team as soon as nats got 1st n 2nd no outs. I swear one of these nites i’m gonna lose my mind , i know wheels is a nice guy a philly lifer and knows his stuff but the over analysis and complimenting makes me nuts sometimes.

Jeff must of split , i even wished hate smurf happy new year. No other scoring in the brave/met game for 4 innings now mets have 3 more outs. Box score shows mets with only error i wonder if that error contributed to the 6 run inning for the braves.

Chooch gets no press nationally , he is the most underrated player on the phils , especially nationally. When do you hear him brought up ?
Maybe when he wins ws mvp this year he’ll be on the wheaties box

Victorino .451 obp in sept and 15 runs scored and that was before his 4 times on base tonite ! His obp is gonna approach .500 after this game.
Andrew/Philly ———- I don’t care how unhappy jimmy might be about hitting down in the order shane has to stay there. Jimmy’s been hurt so he should understand , i dont want shane moved as long as he’s doin what he’s been doin , he’s close to getting on 1/2 his at bats in sept thats sick !

If JC cant throw strikes with an 8 run lead he blows , i dont want to see a single walk ! Were gonna need everyone to contribute to win a WS
he needs to builds some confidence he was great a couple years ago.
I started this when he went 0-2 to the 1st hitter since then he got the ground out and the k so nice job , we really need him back imop

Last series the Mutts had Santana to stop the braves, not this time-but the E# goes down every day anyway, so it’s okay.

Oh and I agree totally with your MVP#2 and MVP#1 Shane gets it started at the top, Chooch at the bottom, we already knew about the middle guys.

Did you hear the Nats announcer say “the Phillies never have to give up hitting to make defensive substitutions”? He’s right, and that makes us very tough. Especially up the middle, and we lose nothing with Valdez. On the radio, LA says he’s the MVP!

hope kk can calm down n pitch well he just doesn’t have much confidence. I would be happy for him if he got some playoff mop up time
so he could say he pitched in the playoffs I just dont think charlie would ever use him. If he doesn’t pitch well this time he may not see the mound again this year.

Ive said it before the reason this team wins is the players in the middle of the diamond. My MVP could never be anything but a C SS 2b or CF

People way underestimate it. You will have to look hard to see me bad mouth Jimmy. Some of his ABs are frustrating. Especially leading off but you put up with it all for the glove.
You put Mccann or Piazza on this phillies team and take away Ruiz. It doesnt make the playoffs. You have to be like the ankees to make it with a bad defensive catcher.

This team has that swagger again theyre gonna be tough to beat . We need to sweep nats and hope mets take at least one. KK and Chsbg are gonna have to be big and pitch well. I think Big Joe will be ok , can kk give us one of those (good) kk performances ?

andrew , everyone that played the game at a decent level (college for me) or just knows the game from others understands the “up the middle” importance of a baseball team. Its the heart of the defense , your catcher , cf , 2b and ss have to be great defensively to win alot of games. Thats all i’ve heard in 35 years of being around the game playing and coaching. When you get above avg offensive production from those spots you win WS rings.

I think KK can be useful as a long reliever, I think we need him. We can’t expect H2O to be perfect every time out, and if JB spits up all over himself in the first cuple innings, KK would be a good asset.

Mike- The swagger is like a big ol train that can’t be stopped. You can slow it down now and then, but you can;t stop it.

This one is a bit obscure but see if you know it-

“Charlie stole the handle and the train it won’t stop going, no way to slow down”

At least we agree.
about strong up the middle. Alot of fans dont understand. Mccann and Piazza types are too easy to like. Jeff Kent comes to mind as a guy who is way over rated.
Id actually vlaue Mccann and Piazza more if they played 1b or LF. I might vote for Piazza for the HOF as a lf . No way he should make it as a C. He was a liability. Had to be on a team well above average to make up for his defense.
Remember when the Mets tried him at first? I mean he couldnt even play first. Adam Dunn is passabble at first.

You are spot on guys, the people that don’t know the value of defense up the middle don’t know the game. I haven’t played in years, but I’ve been coaching and umpiring. The first thing I look for in my guys (young ones) is who’s going to be my catcher, SS,2B. and CF – Hitting is secondary in those positions.

The Yankees just had to put a 3 spot up in the top of 9th to beat the orioles , theyre not goin back to series this year. I know theyre the Yankees but I dont think the last couple weeks are a fluke they have some real problems , starting pitching inconsistent and injuries are real issues for them right now.

Colorado keeps coming and coming. Kinda hope they get the division so we can play them in NLCS.
I dont want them as WC and us best record and draw them in round 1.
The Phils are only 1 game behnd most wins in majors.

It’s too easy for a good team to be taken out in a 5 game series. That format should be done away with.
I know the arguments against, cold weather etc. – but if they weren’t so greedy they could schedule double headers on mid-summer Sundays like the old days and then they could fit it all in.

I have kuorda in fantasy too
The Rockies are killing him with singles
carnege today for my fantasy but i am still up 5-4 this week in semi finals somehow

SF is losing if thigs hold

colorado is 1.5 back
They have to make it. They are playing better than any team ive watched. Better than the Phillies are playing right now. Reminds me of that steam roller the phils ran into in 2007.
Scary

A-roid hit the bomb right after the missed call huh ? Its all window dressing anyway , AL decided already yanks/rays/twins/rangers , I know sox fans are holding on to hope but its not gonna happen. I would love to see the twins make it , never know. On the other hand if we make it back nothing would be sweeter than beating the evil empire.

You guys ever listen to Chris Russo- (mad dog radio) on satellite? He does a good show, it’s mostly NY based but he discusses all teams. He’s actually a SF giants fan, but he thinks that everyone better fear the Phillies right now, including A.L. teams. I don’t like the NY stuff, but around here it’s refreshing just to hear someone talk baseball on the radio.

I would agree the phils are the team to beat
But the Rockies are up there and are so hot.
In a 5 gamer could be bad.

I used to listen to mike and the mad dog a little
Hes no Phil Wood
Its so much easier to talk NFL. thats why they dont talk baseball a lot.
Baseball is hard to understand. Its a strategy game.
You know people dont understand that the Mets were better with Pagan in center than the great beltran. You have to be high functioning to understand baseball. You have to invest time to understand it.
You can be feeble minded like Bravoman and enjoy and understand the NFL. I liek the informed fans here more than talking heads liek Kornheiser or eskin. They dont know anything about baseball especially.

Phil Wood is the best. Seems I’m always in the car during afternoon drive time. Big business radio, and TV stations always “dumb down” their products to meet the needs of the masses. Never any baseball during drive time. Your right it’s just too much for the average sports fan.
But I wonder sometimes if the NFL is so popular because people really like it so much better, or because it’s what gets force fed to us whether we want it or not.

But I have watched the eagles with same guys since we went to bars in the mid nineties. I do enjoy hanging out with them and I do hope the Eagles win.
All that hype for a 16 game season. 16 hours of play is the whole year.
Its actually too simplistic and force fed for me.
Most americans are too lazy anymore. The NFL fits america in 2010.

Agreed, I’m not a big football fan either. Baseball is what I was brought up on and remains the game I love most.

I do like Hockey and Basketball, it’s just as mindless as football, (no real strategy there either) But at least they don’t stop to huddle every 20 seconds while we’re shown 6 replays of the same play over and over.